All but a handful of the 228 weekly newspapers audited by ABC lost sales year on year.

The figures suggest quickening in the pace of print decline in recent years possibly fuelled by cover price rises, editorial cutbacks and readership moving to online.

Belfast’s Sunday Life was the top selling weekly title, with an average of 36,467 per week (down 9 per cent year on year). The Isle of Wight County Press was the next biggest seller with an average weekly sale of 25,173 (down 6.1 per cent year on year).

The continuing enormous sales gap between Thursday and Monday editions of the Exeter Express & Echo is baffling. Maybe some readers find one issue per week suffices, or just buy it for day-specific content such as job/property advertisements or the TV guide. Even if so, it is their loss: each issue still contains plenty of other worthwhile material, and it is only 50p on Mondays.